CHAPTER 33 – RUDE TARGETED

Midgar’s Sector Eight. Rude was repairing the aircraft in the warehouse. He was crouched in an awkward position underneath the body of the helicopter, reinstalling the starter motor which he had disassembled and repaired. He was paying attention to the warehouse entrance while he continued to work. The door was open just enough that one person could get through. Someone had been eavesdropping on his conversation with Tseng. Rude thought that someone would eventually act on that information. As such, he had left the door open on purpose so as to lure in and capture the individual.

He heard the sound of metal scraping. They were here. Rude focused his attention. He had scattered metal junk parts near the warehouse entrance. But nothing happened. C’mon, get on with it. Rude stopped what he was doing, moved away from the helicopter, and stretched. Then, he quietly walked to the door. There was no sign of life.

As he went outside, he looked through his sunglasses toward the warehouse district, which should have been illuminated by the morning sun. Without moving his face, he scanned the surroundings with his eyes. Then, he noticed someone moving on his right. He spotted something flying through the air, arcing towards him. He knew what it was immediately. It was a cylindrical bomb used in construction. The fuse was lit. He tensed up for a moment. The bomb landed a little ahead of him, bounced a few times, and rolled to his feet. Rude held his breath, quickly picked it up, and threw it back.

“Aaargh!” There was an anguished scream, immediately followed by an explosion. Dust flew everywhere, and the area was filled with smoke.

“Who sent these idiots?” muttered Rude, as he approached the blast radius.

Two men were lying face down. He got down on one knee, and grabbed the shoulder of the smaller man, turning him onto his back. The man had died with a look of surprise and fear on his face. He had a face like a rat. Rude knew the face, but he didn’t know the name. As he approached to check the other man, he heard a crunch under his feet. It seemed he had stepped on a pair of glasses. He kneeled beside the man and looked at his face, which was turned to the side, but didn’t recognise him. He went back, picked up the glasses and put them back on his face…

“Oh.” Rude seemed to recall that this man had a younger brother with geostigma.

**

Reno watched Doyle as he gave out orders to the volunteers. Since Doyle joined, work had been progressing well. The memorial monument was practically finished now. Reno figured maybe he would entrust the role of foreman to the man, and just check in on things later. Since hearing about the Jenova search project, his interest in the construction was completely gone.

“Yo, Mister Doyle.” Reno called out to Doyle respectfully.

“You mind dropping the mister?” Doyle shook his head with a wry smile.

“Did you used to do this kinda work? You seem pretty used to it.”

“I was in the Urban Development Department.”

“So we’re Shin-Ra colleagues, then!”

Doyle looked around at the volunteers, and gave a vague reply of ‘I wonder’.

“Tsh, ‘don’t associate me with the people who do the dirty work’, huh?” There were quite a number of departments that would try to distance themselves from the Turks.

“Well, I’ve been thinkin’ lately,” Doyle stared at Reno. “What you guys do isn’t that bad.”

Reno looked away unintentionally. He felt uncomfortable receiving the approval of someone other than his fellow Turks. “The medicine and this memorial monument are the first step. Just you wait and see. It won’t happen right away, but Shin-Ra will make a recovery. We’re gonna bring it back.” It was an idea he had been toying with lately, but this was the first time he had mentioned it to an outsider.

“You’re doing what?” Doyle frowned at him.

Reno instantly regretted letting that slip. “I can’t say.”

“I bet. But tell the President, nobody’s gonna give in to violence anymore.”

“I’ll tell him if I remember, Mister Doyle. Don’t tell anyone the President’s whereabouts… No, don’t even say he’s alive. He’s still not in good shape. Some still bear a grudge against him. We want to avoid any trouble.”

“What’ll you do if I tell?”

“It’ll mean more work for the Turks,” Doyle chortled.

Just then, Reno’s cellphone rang. “I’ve got something to tell you, so give me a minute,” Reno said, and then answered the phone. “Hey, partner. How’s the helicopter?” He noticed that Doyle was looking his way, and turned his back to him. “What!?” He couldn’t understand what Rude was telling him on the other end of the line at first. “I’ll do some investigating.” Reno hung up and stared at the former Shin-Ra man. “Hey, man. I didn’t see Keough here today… why’s that? And what about Fabio?”

“…Did something happen?”

“They’re both dead.”

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